Tiger That Wandered Nearly Half of Telangana, Feared Shot Dead by Hunters
It spent time in Mancherial, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Jagital, Rajanna Siricilla, Siddipet, Yadadri Bhongir, Karimnagar, Peddapalle districts moving back and forth
HYDERABAD: A wandering sub-adult male tiger that made its way into Telangana last November and trekked through 14 districts since, has reportedly been killed by poachers in the border areas between Nizamabad and Jagtial districts.
The last evidence of the presence of the tiger in the area was in the middle of April when a cattle kill was reported in the forest area in Bheemgal mandal of Nizamabad district, sources said. The sources maintained that the wandering tiger was shot dead, and the poachers were careful not to leave any traces of their act.
However, Vinay Kumar, the chief wildlife warden of Telangana, said the forest department did not have any information of the poaching of the tiger. “When some rumours came about, inspections were done, villagers were questioned but no evidence of the poaching was found. We suspect that the tiger may have moved towards the forests in Jannaram in Mancherial district,” he said.
The official who maintained that there was no information about the tiger being poached, also said that the forest area where it may be moving in has a lot of prey animals. “We do not want to disturb it if the tiger is still there. All protocols are being followed,” he said.
But at least two sources said that the tiger has indeed “disappeared” and “it was shot dead making this a first of its kind of organized poaching in Telangana” and that this was not the first time a tiger that wandered into the Kamareddy-Nizamabad areas went missing. “Earlier too, around two years ago, another tiger that found itself in the same area also went missing. If information trickling in is to be believed, a gang of poachers had also killed four to five leopards in the same area in the past few years but there were no investigations,” a source said.
When the tiger, now missing, and poached by gun wielding hunters, first began its long walk, apparently in search of a territory, the forest department made several efforts to catch it, notably while it was in Yadadri-Bhongir district in Februrary. The department also requisitioned a team of private wildlife rescuers from Pune to help catch the tiger but the efforts did not succeed.
The tiger, for now officially “not seen since April,” began its long walk from forests of Maharashtra and entered the KB Asifabad district sometime in November last year Since then, it spent time in Mancherial, Nirmal, Nizamabad, Kamareddy, Jagital, Rajanna Siricilla, Siddipet, Yadadri Bhongir, Karimnagar, Peddapalle districts moving back and forth. Early in April it entered Nizamabad district. The last report of any activity by this tiger was on April 15 and 16 in Bheemgal area. After that there was no further evidence of its presence,” a source added.
